{"id":109939,"date":"2015-08-31T21:31:29","date_gmt":"2015-09-01T03:31:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/officials-discuss-tribal-community-safety-concerns\/"},"modified":"2015-08-31T21:31:29","modified_gmt":"2015-09-01T03:31:29","slug":"officials-discuss-tribal-community-safety-concerns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/officials-discuss-tribal-community-safety-concerns\/","title":{"rendered":"Officials discuss tribal community safety concerns"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Deputy
Deputy Attorney General Sally Quillian Yates and acting Associate Attorney General Stuart F. Delery respond to a question by Patrick Boice, a prosecutor with the Ute Indian Tribe of Fort Duchesne, Utah, on Wednesday during the 23rd annual Four Corners Indian Country Conference at the Sky Ute Casino in Ignacio.<\/span>Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Moderated by Colorado U.S. Attorney John Walsh, the panel discussion Wednesday included U.S. Deputy Attorney General Sally Quillian Yates, Associate Attorney General Stuart Delery and Montana U.S. Attorney Michael Cotter.<\/p>\n

They said federal and tribal prosecutors are collaborating on \u201cunprecedented levels\u201d and working to empower attorneys to bring viable criminal cases to court.<\/p>\n

With the intent of walking away with a list of priorities, officials listened to conference attendees as they spoke of scant funding, an insufficient number of full-time prosecutors and lack of pre-emptive measures to decrease violence, drug abuse, sexual assault and other crimes plaguing native communities.<\/p>\n

Complaints ranged from victims falling through the cracks because too few victim advocates are serving the Navajo Nation, to a decline in criminal cases filed. Native American leaders also noted a cultural disconnect in outreach efforts<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s good that they have the federal resources and representatives to speak to opportunities that exist, but I didn\u2019t see the cultural considerations and use of our resources to address trauma and violence in our communities,\u201d said Loren Sekayumptewa, director of tribal services for the Southern Utes.<\/p>\n

\u201cMoney can help to bring programs onto our nations and help with intervention and treatment, but in terms of healing trauma, you have to look at the holistic manner we treat them when they are violated,\u201d she said. \u201cNot just those in current times, but trauma has existed in our communities for many, many years.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sekayumptewa said Washington could learn by including more \u201ccultural, traditional community leaders and healers\u201d in outreach programs in order to bridge cultural gaps.<\/p>\n

He added that manpower and funding are needed to counter a proliferating substance-abuse problem in tribal communities.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s threatening our cultures and families,\u201d Sekayumptewa said. \u201cThe Navajo Nation is constantly under siege. The root is alcohol and drugs. Our people are being ravaged by violence by those who engage in these behaviors.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sexual assault and violence is also prevalent in many reservations, and, according to Patrick Woods, a tribal prosecutor in Utah, must be handled more proactively. Raising awareness is as critical as post-incident outreach and therapy, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cSexual assault, in my opinion, is exceptionally hard to prosecute,\u201d Woods said. \u201cIt\u2019s embarrassing. We don\u2019t get people that want to talk about it. I\u2019ve had to prosecute cases where the daughter gets sexually assaulted, and auntie says: \u2018Shake it off. Don\u2019t worry about it. Move on.\u2019 It\u2019s been from years of neglect in this arena and (we\u2019ve) created a monster. We need to address this when they\u2019re young, and actively have the conversation that it\u2019s not OK. We\u2019re losing generations of mothers and daughters, and that\u2019s the lifeblood of most of our tribal communities. They make these programs work, these court systems work and these families run.\u201d<\/p>\n

In 2010, the U.S. Department of Justice launched the Coordinated Tribal Assistance Solicitation (CTAS) to help with the grant-application process for tribal communities to improve public safety and address other needs. More than 1,100 grants have been awarded thus far.<\/p>\n

Though a crucial component, money alone cannot solve public-safety issues in native communities, Delery said.<\/p>\n

Officials also said the Justice Department is committed to sustaining successful programs, like the Drug Endangered Children program, as well as a fairly new initiative to address needs of veterans in tribal communities.<\/p>\n

Yates has spent 27 years working in the Justice Department, but admitted little knowledge of problems in native communities until she was appointed to her current position this year and she visited the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation with former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor the first time, I saw the unique issues you are dealing with,\u201d Yates said. \u201cIt\u2019s a little strange for me to be on the answer side of this. I\u2019ve been deputy attorney general for a few months. One of the first things I wanted to do was get more plugged in.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yates told The Durango Herald that after Wednesday\u2019s conference, she was astonished to learn about the frequency of sexual assault on reservations. Going forward, she wants to ensure the Justice Department officials take individually tailored approaches to addressing public safety in tribal communities.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat may work and be important for one tribe is not the approach that will necessarily work somewhere else,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

jpace@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Attorney General Sally Quillian Yates and acting Associate Attorney General Stuart F. Delery respond to a question by Patrick Boice, a prosecutor with the Ute Indian Tribe of Fort Duchesne, Utah, on Wednesday during the 23rd annual Four Corners Indian Country Conference at the Sky Ute Casino in Ignacio.Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald Moderated by Colorado […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":109940,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5736,5735],"tags":[21,13,167,856,629],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-109939","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news","category-news","tag-cortez","tag-frontpage-lead","tag-local-news-lead","tag-navajo-county","tag-southern-ute-indian-tribe"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109939","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=109939"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109939\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/109940"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=109939"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=109939"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=109939"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=109939"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}